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Lynn Chadwick 1914 - 2003 Watcher IX, 1961 Signed and numbered 'Chadwick 2/4 354' Bronze. Edition of 4. 20 1/8 x 5 1/4 x 5 7/8 in, 51 x 13.4 x 15 cm Provenance From the artist's studio Private Collection, Austria Private Collection, UK Exhibitions London, Marlborough Fine Art, Kenneth Armitage, November – December 1961, illus. Milan, Galleria Blu, Due scultori inglesi, January 1963; illus. p.6, fig.13 Milan, Centro d'Arte Annunciata, Scultura europea, 14 April – 5 May 1965 illus. p.13 Literature Dennis Farr & Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, London, 2014, no. 352, illus. of another cast p.196 Having also exhibited at the pivotal New Aspects of British Sculpture, Chadwick went on to fully establish his reputation by winning the International Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1956 – ahead of Giacometti – becoming the youngest sculptor ever to receive the award. In 1959 Chadwick began working on one his most iconic series of sculptures: The Watchers. All recognisability was removed from the figures, creating sculptures that were neither human nor animal, male nor female. Magisterial and brooding, Watcher IX epitomises the capacity of Chadwick's sculpture to evoke an abstracted presence of life. Chadwick moves away from typical abstraction and Moore's classical bodies in Watcher IX to create his own visual language. In contrast to his earlier open structures, figures such as this are defined by their rough, textured skin. During the 1950s and 1960s Chadwick became intensely interested in bronze's potential as a medium, pioneering new techniques for welding and construction. Rejecting the smooth, hand carved forms of Hepworth and Moore, Chadwick instead sought a rawer approach. Watcher IX embodies Chadwick's belief that art should be 'the manifestation of some vital force coming from the dark, caught by the imagination and translated by the artist's ability and skill'.